Echoes of the Past

Leaving Daniel behind at the airport had been one of the hardest moments of Emma’s life. She had watched him walk away, the weight of their past and the uncertainty of the future hanging heavy in the air. As she walked back to her cab, tears had blurred her vision, and she had struggled to hold herself together. The cab ride back to her temporary apartment had been a blur of conflicting emotions—grief, anger, and a deep, aching loneliness.

The days that followed were a whirlwind of new beginnings. Emma had been fortunate to start her role as a resident in internal medicine at St. Vincent Hospital in Nashville. Thanks to a new law in Tennessee, international medical graduates like herself could begin directly as residents rather than starting from the bottom of the medical hierarchy. This law was a recent change that allowed her to bypass the traditional residency program after a two-year trial period, during which her performance would determine her future in the state’s medical field